The invention relates to an apparatus for refilling piston delivery tubes from aerosol cans. It can also be used to deliver material directly from such cans.
Insecticide has previously been applied along seams between walls and in small cracks using piston tubes. The pistons in these tubes drive an insecticide out a nozzle end of the tube (somewhat like a syringe or a caulk tube). Various devices exist to drive a stem against such pistons to cause this to happen.
Consumers have no inexpensive, efficient, and safe way to refill these tubes. While there is equipment that is used to fill these tubes from their nozzle end at a factory, it is too expensive for consumers to use for refill purposes. Thus, once these piston tubes are emptied they are typically thrown away. This a waste of material (which increases the cost of using them), and it leads to contaminated garbage.
A related problem is that consumers often have no good way to deliver insecticides directly from an aerosol can to narrow crevices. While straws have been inserted into spray outlets of aerosol cans to direct spray to particular points (e.g. to deliver lubricants to machine parts), the joint between the straw and the aerosol can outlet is often susceptible to leakage. In any event the user may be exposed to the contents of the can as the straw is being inserted directly into the can's outlet.
Analogous problems exist in connection with delivering other types of fluids from pressurized cans to narrow crevices. As such, it can be seen that a need exists for improved fluid delivery systems.